Tag: pandemic

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The World Looks Different Now

We used to joke about looking at the world through rose coloured glasses, until I worked for an optometrist and discovered this really is a thing. Not only that, a very desirable thing, as it can soothe eye strain and relieve headaches for some.

But today, I view the world through fog covered glasses. With a mask on my face, the lenses are perpetually fogged, and I’ve gotten used to it. Just one of those ‘givens’ we must adapt to. There are a lot of new ‘givens’ during the pandemic.

Some days I have little rain showers inside my glasses. Fog condenses, and it rains, droplets run down like tears. Sort of like being in a car with no windshield wipers. I’m moving forward, but with little idea of where.

When I used to go to the gym I was teased about being my own cloud burst, that is how hard I sweat. It spurted off me with little exertion on my part. I was a walking rain shower. Well, times have changed, and now the rain shower is scaled down to my glasses, with the same amount of minimal effort.

I leave my ‘smoky’ glasses on because they provide some additional protection, or so I have heard, and I can’t see great without them either. In fact, I have them tied around my head, because they keep falling off and you are not suppose to touch your face! Being so tethered, they are not accessible for the odd wipe, so there you go. The end result is, I basically just can’t see any more, and perhaps this is not so bad. There are a lot of things I’d rather not see. A lot of things I wish I had never seen.

Additional bonus, no one can see me now either! Glass-less persons can’t see my eyes, and those with lenses are just as fogged up as me. So none of us knows who we are or where we are going.

Zaphod Beeblebrox of the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy fame, had glasses that automatically blackened at the first hint of danger. So, the pandemic has given me fog, with a light drizzle. Enough to soften and distort the world, but let me know shit is still happening.

Foggy glasses used to be embarrassing, and annoying, now it’s a new normal, and no one notices or cares, except if I bump into them.

Next week, some thoughts about masks.

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You Are Here

Remember the good old days when we went to shopping malls?

There would be, somewhere in the facility, after a lengthy search of going in circles until exhausted with no place to sit, a directory, and it would say “You are Here.”

You’d look at that map and wonder where the fuck you are. It would then take a half hour of titling your head from side to side, to practically doing a headstand to figure out where here is. Once you did establish it, you’d spend another half hour trying to find the store you want, then orientating yourself as to, do you go right, left, up, down, back where you came from? Or worse, discovering the store is no longer. Get us to the food court please, surely to God there will be some much needed bathrooms there!

Airport directories are way worse.

Welcome to the abyss. This is where I am now. At that infamous directory saying “You are Here”. Only in the abyss, there is just sky, clouds, the odd bird. I don’t want to look down. It might give me an idea of how far up I am, and, hmm, is that ground getting closer?

I am referring of course to my recent decision to quit a 15 year soul sucking job.

It was a huge leap into the abyss, especially during a pandemic, into a future unknown. However, I will tell you this, it is way better to have a future unknown than the future known. The future that repeats the past, day in and day out of misery and predictable boredom.

So even if the ground is fast approaching, maybe I’ll figure out where here is and where I can go before the final splat.

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Good Timing

When would be the worst possible time to quit your job.

Let’s see:

When there is a global pandemic.

When the world is facing a global economic depression never seen before.

When tens of millions of people are unemployed.

When you are a senior.

When you are in debt.

Hmmm.

Okay.

I quit.

Yep, I quit my job.

And I did exactly the right thing.

I suspect a lot of other people have too.

I have had to face my reality head on while at home. I’ve been forced to reassess my life. Away from the office I was outside of my situation and problems, enabling me to see with a new perspective and a fresh outlook. When you are in the problem, you cannot see clearly.

And at the worst possible moment in all of history, I make a life changing decision. To make my life, my own.

Here we go!

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Oh, So Much!

There is so much I could rant about today.

But then there is this:

There is oh SO much to be grateful for, despite the times we are in.

Our animal companions.

The people on the front lines.

Our home comforts. Food. Computers. Technology. Good friends.

Look at the thousands upon thousands of good deeds being done every single day due to this pandemic. It is bringing out our true nature – LOVE!

Oh, yeah, there are some stupid shits, but they are a very tiny fraction of the population and not representative of most of the human race.

We are not the corruption of politicians. We are not the dirty laundry of big corporations. We are bigger and better than all of these self serving rats! We are good people.

My biggest hope is we emerge from this with a new framework on how to conduct business – with love, not to fatten bank accounts of grossly overcompensated shareholders and CEO’s. Our education system is improved so that people understand geography, environment, politics, humanity, how to think, and solve problems, and our teachers are well compensated. Our health care is just that, health care, not survival of the richest, it is for everyone and it is FREE. We finally stop talking and take action. We clean up all the pollution we’ve created and pass very strict laws to prevent contamination of our planet. No one should suffer any issue in any country.

We finally come to our senses. We are a global community. We need to celebrate our diversity and embrace it, because there are so many great ideas, art, music, technology, you name it, that we can share and create and make this world an Eden. Together!